NAME

pl2bat - wrap perl code into a batch file

SYNOPSIS

pl2bat -h

pl2bat [-w] [-a argstring] [-s stripsuffix] [files]

pl2bat [-w] [-n ntargs] [-o otherargs] [-s stripsuffix] [files]

DESCRIPTION

This utility converts a perl script into a batch file that can be executed on DOS-like operating systems.

Note that by default, the ".pl" suffix will be stripped before adding a ".bat" suffix to the supplied file names. This can be controlled with the -s option.

The default behavior is to have the batch file compare the OS environment variable against "Windows_NT". If they match, it uses the %* construct to refer to all the command line arguments that were given to it, so you'll need to make sure that works on your variant of the command shell. It is known to work in the cmd.exe shell under WindowsNT. 4DOS/NT users will want to put a ParameterChar = * line in their initialization file, or execute setdos /p* in the shell startup file.

On Windows95 and other platforms a nine-argument limit is imposed on command-line arguments given to the generated batch file, since they may not support %* in batch files.

These can be overridden using the -n and -o options or the deprecated -a option.

OPTIONS

-n ntargs

Arguments to invoke perl with in generated batch file when run from Windows NT (or Windows 98, probably). Defaults to '-x -S "%0" %*'.

-o otherargs

Arguments to invoke perl with in generated batch file except when run from Windows NT (ie. when run from DOS, Windows 3.1, or Windows 95). Defaults to '-x -S "%0" %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9'.

-a argstring

Arguments to invoke perl with in generated batch file. Specifying -a prevents the batch file from checking the OS environment variable to determine which operating system it is being run from.

-s stripsuffix

Strip a suffix string from file name before appending a ".bat" suffix. The suffix is not case-sensitive. It can be a regex if it begins with `/' (the trailing '/' is optional and a trailing $ is always assumed). Defaults to /.plx?/.

-w

If no line matching /^#!.*perl/ is found in the script, then such a line is inserted just after the new preamble. The exact line depends on $Config{startperl} [see Config]. With the -w option, " -w" is added after the value of $Config{startperl}. If a line matching /^#!.*perl/ already exists in the script, then it is not changed and the -w option is ignored.

-u

If the script appears to have already been processed by pl2bat, then the script is skipped and not processed unless -u was specified. If -u is specified, the existing preamble is replaced.

-h

Show command line usage.

EXAMPLES

        C:\> pl2bat foo.pl bar.PM 
        [..creates foo.bat, bar.PM.bat..]
        
        C:\> pl2bat -s "/\.pl|\.pm/" foo.pl bar.PM
        [..creates foo.bat, bar.bat..]
        
        C:\> pl2bat < somefile > another.bat
        
        C:\> pl2bat > another.bat
        print scalar reverse "rekcah lrep rehtona tsuj\n";
        ^Z
        [..another.bat is now a certified japh application..]
        
        C:\> ren *.bat *.pl
        C:\> pl2bat -u *.pl
        [..updates the wrapping of some previously wrapped scripts..]
        
        C:\> pl2bat -u -s .bat *.bat
        [..same as previous example except more dangerous..]

BUGS

$0 will contain the full name, including the ".bat" suffix when the generated batch file runs. If you don't like this, see runperl.bat for an alternative way to invoke perl scripts.

Default behavior is to invoke Perl with the -S flag, so Perl will search the PATH to find the script. This may have undesirable effects.

SEE ALSO

perl, perlwin32, runperl.bat